“Love, Naturally!” is the theme of this year’s Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, a national educational campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to celebrate God’s design for married love and the gift of life and to raise awareness of Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods.

“NFP,” as the U.S. bishops have written, is supportive of Catholic beliefs about married love because it “respects the God-given power to love a new human life into being” (see, U.S. Bishops, Married Love and the Gift of Life).

The dates of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week (July 21-27, 2019) annually highlight the anniversary of Humanae Vitae (July 25) as well as the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26), the parents of the Blessed Mother.

Resources and ideas for celebrating and promoting NFP Awareness Week in your area can be found on the USCCB’s NFP Program website: usccb.org/nfp/awareness-week/index. cfm. For more information, contact nfp@usccb.org.

Additional information about natural family planning can be found on the Diocese of Burlington website at vermontcatholic.org/ministries-programs/marriage-family/ natural-family-planning. Contact Terri McCormack, marriage and family life coordinator for the Diocese of Burlington, for more information.

—Vermont Catholic

—Originally published in the July 20-26, 2019, issue of The Inland See.